Aug. 16 (UPI) -- An 88-year-old woman who apparently slipped and fell while gardening was killed in an apparent alligator attack near Hilton Head, S.C.
The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office responded to a call from a resident at 11:15 a.m. Monday, where they found a large alligator guarding a deceased woman's body in a pond. Officials identified the woman as Nancy Becker and said they believe she slipped and fell while gardening in the gated 55-plus community of Sun City Hilton Head in Okatie.
The alligator was described as a 9-foot, 8-inch male and was later removed from the pond and euthanized, according to officials.
While alligator attacks are more common in Florida than in South Carolina, they do occasionally happen. The last fatal alligator attack in Beaufort County was in 2018, when an alligator pulled a 45-year-old woman and her small dog into a pond after grabbing the leash, the Island Packet newspaper reported.
Monday's attack was the first fatal one in South Carolina since May 2020, when a 58-year-old woman went to touch an alligator that she had seen.
